date set for repatriation of the Czarina's remains
the copenhagen post reported thursday that a date has been set for the re-internment of the danish-born Czarina Maria Fyodorovna for 26 September 2006 in st petersburg, russia.«the remains of Czarina Maria Fyodorovna, born Princess Dagmar of Denmark, will be returned to russia in two years, seventy-seven years after her death. the danish and russian governments have agreed that the dowager empress' sarcophagus will be re-interred on 26 September 2006 in the peter and paul cathedral in st petersburg.
Dagmar, who took the name Maria Fyodorovna upon marrying the future Czar Alexander III, was the mother of russia's last Romanov czar, Nicholas II. she was born in copenhagen in 1847, the daughter of the future King Christian IX, but spent more than fifty years of her life in russia before being forced into exile in denmark after the 1917 revolution.
Dagmar settled at hvidøre, her estate in north sealand, where she remained in seclusion until her death in 1928. her remains were interred at roskilde cathedral, resting place of the danish monarchs. since the collapse of the soviet union, members of the Romanov family in exile have worked to bring about the repatriation of Dagmar's remains, so that she might be laid to rest alongside her husband, in accordance with her final wishes.»
